Hamed Ahmadi, TMMBA Class of 2012

To me, this fall quarter has been one of the best quarters in the program so far. There was a lot of enjoyable and exciting work. Specifically, the Operation and Inventory Management course by Kamran Moinzadeh.

Maybe it is my personal taste, but I enjoyed this course very much. Mostly because I love math, calculation, excel sheets full of data, manufacturing, and a few other things, all presented in this subject. Another reason for the success of the course, in my opinion, was how Kamran taught the material. It just gets into your head and you start using the concepts everywhere. My wife caught me the other day analyzing how many cashiers Costco should have; she was not happy that I did all my ‘calculations’ on the back of the chocolate box she was going to give as gift!

One of the highlights of the course for me was the lesson I learned from the “Little Field Technologies” simulation, a very intriguing practice of theoretical concepts taught in the first half of the quarter. And by lesson I mean something beyond the course material. Let me elaborate a bit more.

The simulation was about teams driving a factory for a few hundred simulated days (one real week) and whoever got the most money in the end was the winner. The competition was the spice to the activity and I do not believe people really cared much about its grade. What our team did was doing the calculations before the simulation started and then just monitoring the factory during the week. But I got carried away: I redid our calculation a few times and monitored the factory the first night until 4 AM! I was taking snapshots every hour to be able to analyze our performance; and finally too much doubt and qualm about our actions did what I was afraid of: I encouraged my team to change something that eventually put us behind most of the teams; then I was kind of depressed for a week after that.

Now, I imagine I was put in charge of a real factory; real money, global competition, eager stakeholders… Am I going to behave the same way? How am I going to handle pressure and high expectation? And a whole lot of other questions…

This simulation was a ”Big Field” I played a few of my tactics in and realized I have work to do. This was another addition to what I’ve learned about myself in this program, and for that I want to thank Kamran and my team.

Sara Jones, TMMBA Class of 2012 & Assistant Director

Last Saturday a Foster librarian came over to TMMBA to give a quick lunchtime presentation about the Foster Business Library.  As a TMMBA staff member, I felt like I had a good understanding of the resources available. They have an amazing list of research databases, meeting rooms for students, access to computers, and librarians available to help with research. I still went to the presentation though because I had struggled summer quarter with a macroeconomics research project and wanted to find out what I could have done differently.  They didn’t have a perfect solution, but I learned that they could have helped point me in the right direction for credible sources of data.

What I was really excited to learn about though were two resources that I didn’t know the libraries offered:

MP3s of articles
Don’t have time to read the most recent issue of Harvard Business Review? Looking for something to listen to while you’re on the go? Many of their articles are available as MP3s that you can download. I’ll definitely be trying this out on my commute.

Digital scans of hard copy materials
There are a lot of resources that are available in hard copy only. With our classes located in Kirkland this can be difficult to find time to go and get them.  I was excited to learn that they will scan and email articles that they have in hard copy format.  Awesome!

You can check out these and other resources at the Foster Business Library.

Jared McInelly – TMMBA Class of 2012

Last night I had a chance to talk to the incoming class of 2013. I still can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I started this program. The time really has gone by fast. I’m also really surprised by all that I’ve learned this year as well.
Here are the three stories I shared with the class and the main points from each.

Value your team
I remember the first time I met with my team. We met before dinner one night to discuss our answers to the Microeconomics homework. We were supposed to turn in one assignment for our group. As we went around the circle and explained what we got for #1, I was shocked to see that we each of us had a different answer. I thought, “what are we going to do now? I know I’m right, how can everyone else be wrong?” As we discussed the problem further, we figured out what the right answer was. It turned out that, big surprise, I was wrong.
I learned from this experience that the work we would do as a group is better, and more often correct, than the work I do on my own. I’ve really come to enjoy working on assignments and projects with my group. I look forward to their insights. Know that you are on a team with smart people. Learn to work with them and value the insights they bring.

Make a plan with your friends and family
Six weeks into the program I got a call one night as I was driving to class. When I answered, all I could hear was sobbing on the other line. After a few minutes I figured out that it was my 5 year old daughter asking me why I wasn’t going to be home for dinner. After talking to her for awhile and calming her down, I began to think about the effect this endeavor was having on my family. That night my wife and I talked and came up with a detailed plan of how we would use the time I had available to make sure we did things together and as a family. We decided that Friday or Saturday nights would be a date night for us and that Sunday nights would be dedicated as a family night. This plan has really worked well for us. I know that I’ve only have these couple of time windows to spend with the people I really care about, so it makes the time we spend that much more intense.
As you start the program, make sure you have a frank discussion with your friends and family about the program and when you will be around for them. I suggest you come up with a plan that takes into account the people you really care about. You’re going to graduate in a year and a half and those people are still going to be in your life. You don’t want to neglect them for that long.

You are a select group
My brother and I studied for and took the GMAT around the same time. We were talking one day after we’d gotten our scores back. He said something that I thought was interesting (which was something I’m not used to hearing from my younger brother).
“Of all the people in the world who have careers, we are the kind of people who have taken the time and energy to study for and take a really hard test. That puts us in a small minority.”
For TMMBA students I would say that we are the kind of people who have scored well enough on that test to apply and get accepted into the best program at the best university in the Seattle area. And we are willing to do it while we are still working full-time! We really are a select group. Your classmates are a select group. Get to know them well. Reach out to people and sit with new people at dinner, lunch and breakfast on class days.
Right when we started the program we all started adding each other on LinkedIn. About a year later, we all started adding each other on Facebook. You are going to make great friends in this program. Take advantage of the opportunity to meet strong, intelligent people like you.
Good luck to the incoming class of 2013. You will love this program. It’s intense but very rewarding!